By Jamie Wetherbe

December 18, 2012, 6:45 p.m.

Los Angeles brims with traditions this time of year, and every Christmas Eve for more than half a century, the city's many faiths have shared one stage.

The annual Los Angeles County Holiday Celebration, which started as a 12-hour neighborhood talent show, will showcase 23 local music and dance groups from cultures near and far during a three-hour concert that's free to all and is broadcast on TV, radio and the Web.

"It's really become what you do in L.A. on Christmas Eve, even if you don't celebrate Christmas," said Adam Davis, managing director of the Los Angeles County Arts Commission, which produces the program.

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To mark its 53rd year, we count down what it takes to put on L.A.'s biggest (and Emmy-nominated) holiday show.

1 million: People expected to tune into the live KCET broadcast

$832,000: Cost of this year's show (and paid for by the L.A. County Board of Supervisors)

10,000: Hours of work for staff and production crew

5,000: People in the audience, who come and go throughout the program

1,200: Viewers expected to watch the live stream on http://www.kcet.org

629: Performers

500: Pounds of dry ice to create a foggy effect for the Shin Dance Company, a nonprofit that stages traditional Chinese dance

250: Volunteers and staff

100-plus: light bulbs

82: Age of the oldest performer, Aiga Tagaloa with the Second Samoan Congregational Church, who will perform alongside her great-grandchildren

75: Ushers

60: Microphones on stage

51: Stagehands

24: Music stands

20: Headsets for live broadcast